


Like There's No Tomorrow

by Obsession137



Category: Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-22
Updated: 2020-04-22
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:35:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23791696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Obsession137/pseuds/Obsession137
Summary: Set during the events of Infinity War, on an alien spaceship headed to Titan, Peter decides to tell Mr Stark how he feels because, heck, they’ll both be dead tomorrow.
Relationships: Peter Parker/Tony Stark
Comments: 5
Kudos: 106





	Like There's No Tomorrow

Mr Stark was stressed out, Peter could tell. And he’d seen him and been around him while he was stressed before, but this was on another level. He felt partly responsible, but at the end of the day, his new Iron Spider suit was extremely advanced – Mr Stark’s fault entirely - and he’d ended up getting stuck to the spaceship whether he wanted to be there or not. So now he was somewhere in the middle of outer space on an alien ship with his stressed-out mentor and a kinda irritating wizard-dude they’d just met, called Dr Strange.

They were en-route to Thanos’s planet, Titan, which the Voldemort-looking alien had set in place before they’d sucked him out the side of the ship like in the movie ‘Alien’ – it had actually been pretty awesome. They had no idea how long it would take to get to Titan, only that they were inevitably going to end up there. All they had to do until they got there was to wait. And argue.

Mr Stark and Dr Strange had been arguing for the past half an hour, and Peter had kinda tuned out. Of course he’d always take Mr Stark’s side in any argument, but he didn’t really want to get involved. He was pretty sure their argument had turned from what the plan was to who was most well-equipped to deal with Thanos to why Mr Stark had ‘brought a teenager along’ to whose job was most important, several times.

“I’ll take the first shift,” Dr Strange said in a bored drawl, making Mr Stark sigh loudly. He looked as though he was about to argue back, but at this point, Peter just wanted the arguing to stop.

“Okay, sounds good to me,” Peter chirped in, smiling at Dr Strange and then at Mr Stark to hopefully break the tension. 

Mr Stark glanced over at him and then back at Dr Strange. “Fine. Two hours.”

Dr Strange nodded and went back to staring out the ship window.

“Come on, Kid, let’s see if we can find somewhere for you to sleep on this thing,” Mr Stark said, gesturing for Peter to follow him. Peter jumped up quickly and hurried after him.

“You need to sleep too, Sir,” Peter said, peering up at Mr Stark as they walked. 

“I don’t trust The Wizard of Oz over there to keep us safe,” Mr Stark murmured. “He’d gladly throw us under the bus to keep that stone safe, he said it himself.”

“Well then we’ll take our own shifts of sleeping,” Peter said.

“Kid-”

“-There’s no discussion to be had, Mr Stark,” Peter continued. “You can trust me to keep watch. It’s kinda what I do.”

Mr Stark smiled at him and nodded. He was already looking pretty shattered, so Peter was sure he was glad for Peter’s suggestion.

“Look here, there’s a bed,” Mr Stark said, guiding Peter into a room to their left. There was a funny-looking double bed that seemed like it was a part of the floor. He tried not to think of what kinds of slimy aliens had been sleeping in it as he dropped down onto the surprisingly soft mattress. He smiled up at Mr Stark and patted the mattress. 

“There’s enough room for the both of us,” Peter said shyly, realising after the words were out of his mouth that maybe he was overstepping. He mentally kicked himself, but kept the smile on his face as though he hadn’t totally embarrassed himself – inviting Tony Stark into bed with him, what an absolute idiot.

Now Peter had been crushing on Mr Stark for the past couple of years, and he’d done very well to hide it. Longing stares and lingering touches were few and far between, but when they happened, Peter was good at hiding the way it made him feel. It wasn’t until the last few months or so that Peter had realised that his crush was actually not really a crush, but he was in love with his mentor. And boy, what a painful realisation that had been.

Mr Stark was engaged to Ms Potts, and they seemed extremely happy. Peter wouldn’t say he was _jealous_ – okay, he really was – but every time he saw the two of them together his heart broke a little. He hated the fact that his first love was someone he could never have in a million years, courtesy of their massive age gap, the fact that Peter was only sixteen, the fact that Mr Stark was already with someone else and the fact that Mr Stark was a billionaire superhero who was _way_ out of Peter’s league. It sucked.

But here they were, on a spaceship together, probably going to die in the near future, and Peter was still staring up at the man he loved, wondering whether Mr Stark _would_ join him on the alien bed.

“Sure,” Mr Stark said, carefully climbing down onto the mattress with Peter. It was pretty awkward, the two of them on the bed in their armour.

“Should we, uh… should I take off my, uh…”

 _Crap, Peter. Keep your cool. What’s gotten into you?_ Peter thought to himself, blushing hard. He was glad it was dark.

“Should probably keep our suits on,” Mr Stark finished for him. “Not the most comfortable, but if we get into trouble we’ll need to be able to fight.”

“Yeah,” Peter agreed. “Duh.”

“Get some sleep, okay, Kid? I’ll wake you up when I get tired.”

Peter wasn’t really that tired, but he decided trying to rest up wouldn’t be a bad idea. Who knew what kind of fight they had ahead of them? And besides, he was pretty sure Mr Stark wouldn’t take no for an answer.

“Okay,” he mumbled, settling down into the bed and trying to get into as comfortable of a position as he could in his suit.

Peter closed his eyes and tried to think of anything but the fact that Mr Stark was inches away from him, in _bed_ with him. He thought of Ned and MJ, how everyone would be wondering where he disappeared to. Maybe their trip had been cancelled due to the alien invasion? Aunt May would be sick with worry. He felt a pang of guilt. What was the last thing he said to her this morning? It might be the last time…

No, he couldn’t think like that.

But it was very likely that he’d die today. He couldn’t deny it. He hated that he couldn’t remember the last thing he said to pretty much everyone he cared about.

That was when it hit him – these could be his very last moments with Mr Stark. He turned carefully so that he was facing Mr Stark, glancing up to see his mentor staring out the ship’s window. Peter watched his facial expressions – he looked exhausted, worried, scared. He looked ten years older and somehow Peter’s stomach was doing backflips because he looked goddamn perfect in Peter’s eyes. 

It was in that moment, realising that he’d most likely be dead very soon, and watching the man he loved stare into the literal void of space, that Peter decided he was going to tell Mr Stark how he felt. God it felt scary, the idea of telling him, but he didn’t want to leave this world without Mr Stark _knowing_.

“Hey,” he croaked quietly, watching Mr Stark’s attention turn from whatever he was looking at out the window to himself.

“Hey yourself. Did you manage to sleep?” Mr Stark asked.

“No, I- uh, couldn’t stop thinking,” Peter said. His heart was thumping so hard and fast in his chest that he was pretty sure if Mr Stark listened carefully enough, he’d be able to hear it.

“About what?”

 _About how much I love you_. “About what’s gonna happen,” Peter whispered. “Mr Stark? Do you… d’ya think we’re gonna die?”

Mr Stark frowned and exhaled slowly, not taking his eyes off Peter’s. “I’d be lying if I said no.”

“Yeah.”

“I mean, we’ll put up a good fight, sure, but like I said before, this is most likely a one-way trip. We can only hope to take Thanos down with us.”

Peter nodded.

“You scared, Kid?” Mr Stark asked softly.

“Terrified.”

“I will try my hardest to keep you safe, you know that,” Mr Stark said. “I just.. wish you’d stayed back.”

Peter smiled sadly. “I can take care of myself out there, Mr Stark, I’m not really scared about… you know… what’s gonna happen.”

“Then what are you scared of?”

Peter swallowed. “I’m scared about telling you this thing I’m about to tell you.”

Mr Stark folded his arms and looked at Peter, more interested. “Hm? What’s that?”

“Okay, so… under normal circumstances, I would _never_ be telling you this. Like, not in a billion years. Like, _at all,_ but since we’re probably gonna die I just… I need to tell you. I need to get it out, but just don’t… please don’t hate me or anything, I-”

“-Spit it out, Kid,” Mr Stark snorted, smiling fondly at Peter.

“-Yeah. Sorry. Ahhh, I’m nervous!” Peter said, sitting up in the bed and breathing out, avoiding eye contact with Mr Stark, whose stare he could feel burning into him.

“Don’t be. You can tell me anything, okay?” Mr Stark said. “But now I’m really interested, so please? What’s up?”

“I, um… I’m in love. With, uh… with you.”

Peter refused to look at Mr Stark. He’d spoken so quietly he wasn’t even sure if Mr Stark had heard, but if he hadn’t heard, there was absolutely no way he’d ever be able to repeat those words. His face was burning with embarrassment, and it was only getting worse with every second Mr Stark didn’t say a word. It was starting to become excruciating when finally Mr Stark broke the silence.

“Are you fucking with me?”

Peter wasn’t exactly sure what he’d expected, but he certainly hadn’t expected that.

“Huh?”

“Is this a joke? A prank?”

“What? No, of course not!” Peter said quickly, finally working up the courage to face Mr Stark, and instantly feeling his face heat up again because of the intensity of how his mentor was looking at him.

“ _Why_?”

Peter stared blankly, unsure of what Mr Stark was asking. 

“Why do you feel like that about me?”

Peter wished he hadn’t said a thing. Why had he thought that this would be a good idea? He almost wished Dr Strange would burst in and tell them they’d arrived at Titan. He almost wished Thanos would kill him right now. But that wasn’t happening, so he had to actually answer Mr Stark’s question.

“You’re… pretty much amazing. I’ve had a crush on you forever but then we actually met for real and I tried not to think of you like that cos you’re like, you know… a mentor to me, and you’re like, _way_ too old for me. But somehow I only started liking you more. You’re just… crazy hot, crazy smart and maybe _I’m_ crazy for thinking it was a good idea to tell you but I, um… I just wanted you to know I think you’re awesome and I’m not worried about what’s gonna happen because I’m with _you_ and there’s nowhere I feel safer than with you.”

Mr Stark was still looking at Peter, but his expression had softened. “You mean that, Kid?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, like you said, we’re probably going to die. So I don’t feel any guilt about telling you that I feel the same way. About you, I mean.”

Peter could hardly believe his ears. Had Mr Stark really just said that? He stared wide-eyed at Mr Stark, unsure of how to respond. It had to be a joke, right? He’d probably felt bad for Peter and only said it to make him feel better before their impending death.

“You don’t have to try make me feel better, Sir. I get it, I’m a teenager and you’re _Iron Man_. You’re engaged, for god’s sake, _trust me_ , I get it.”

“Yeah, you’re a teenager. Why’d you think I never told you before?” Mr Stark laughed. “You’re a sixteen year-old kid, and I’m nearly fifty. You don’t know how much I hate myself for how I feel, and how much I’ve tried to push it away.”

Peter blinked, taking in Mr Stark’s words. Could it be true?

“But what about your fiancé?”

“Call it… a drastic way to get over you.”

“And did it work?” Peter asked.

Mr Stark shook his head, smiling. “Nope, I’m still crazy for you.”

“Oh boy,” Peter breathed, trying not to grin. “For real?”

“For real.”

They spent the next second or so staring at each other, but it felt like it could have been an eternity. Finally, Mr Stark spoke.

“Since we’ll probably be dead in a few hours… there’s something I really want to do, if you’d let me?”

Peter swallowed nervously, nodding. “Yeah?”

“Would you let me kiss you?”

“You… you want to kiss me?”

“I think I just said that, Kiddo, keep up will you?” Mr Stark joked.

Peter laughed. “You can’t ask if you can kiss me and then call me ‘Kiddo’ in the same breath.”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“You can kiss me.”

Mr Stark didn’t need telling twice; Peter barely had time to prepare before Mr Stark’s lips were inches from his own… he just had to lean in slightly, to close the gap… but he suddenly stopped.

“Wait.”

Mr Stark opened his eyes again. “What’s wrong? Hey, if you don’t want to, then please tell me. I don’t want you to be uncomfortable.”

“It’s not that, it’s just…. I’m… ugh… this is really embarrassing, but… I’m kinda a virgin. At everything. Sex, kissing, even holding hands. I mean, this is the first time even being in bed with someone who isn’t my Aunt May.”

Mr Stark smiled. “I figured. Being sixteen and all…”

Peter breathed out in relief, face still red.

“So if you’re not ready, that’s totally fine.”

“No no, I am. I really am. I just wanted to warn you because I might suck at it. And you’re probably really good at it.”

“I am,” Mr Stark smirked. “I’ve been kissing for longer than you’ve been alive.”

Peter rolled his eyes.

“Practice makes perfect, Kid.”

“Oh.”

Mr Stark leaned closer again, gently tilting Peter’s chin up. “Close your eyes.”

“Okay,” Peter murmured, closing his eyes as instructed. He could feel Mr Stark’s warm breath tickling his skin, making everything feel electric.

“I love you,” Mr Stark said, and just as Peter opened his mouth to say it back, he was stopped by a pair of soft lips pressing against his own. Peter didn’t know what he was doing, but the way it felt to have Mr Stark – _Tony Freaking Stark_ – kissing him, was like nothing he could have ever imagined. He instinctively threw his arms around Mr Stark’s neck, and kissed back. 

It definitely felt awkward, and sloppy, and probably what a first kiss should feel like, and he felt a little embarrassed because he could tell that Mr Stark would notice all of his mistakes, but that didn’t stop him from giving it his all. They were going to _die_ , after all. He had to make the most of it.

After a while, Mr Stark broke off the kiss, much to Peter’s dismay. They were both breathing heavily, and the way Mr Stark was looking at Peter was so filled with love that Peter felt like he would melt on the spot.

“I don’t give a crap anymore, Kid. If we survive this, I want to be with you.”

“You do? But what about Ms Potts? What about my age?”

“I want _you_. I’m done feeling guilty about it. Heck, we’re about to try save the goddamn world, we should get _something_ in return if we win. We’ll figure something out.”

Peter smiled brightly. “Okay, Mr Stark. If we make it out of here alive then I’m yours.”

Mr Stark ran his thumb over Peter’s cheek adoringly and smiled. “If that’s not incentive enough to save the universe I don’t know what is.”

“But just in case we _don’t_ make it out alive-”

“-We will,” Mr Stark interjected.

“-But _if_ we don’t… can you kiss me again until it’s time to get off this ship?”

“Come here, baby,” Mr Stark murmured, pulling Peter into his arms and planting a kiss on his forehead. “I’ll kiss you like there’s no tomorrow.”

And he did.


End file.
